Album Review: Bouquet – 800beloved

When 800beloved front man Sean Lynch sings “Let’s kill everyone we know and hit the open road/ Into blackness we will go with no hope for tomorrow” at the opening of his band’s proper debut, Bouquet, it sounds like it might actually work as a decent pick up line. Nor do you hold it against him when he asks “if I told you that I hate this world and wished that I were dead/ and I still made you smile, would it mean anything?” That is to say, 800beloved write some good poppy goth, equal parts creepy and hip-shaking. Though Lynch’s vocals never stray too far from a detached Morrisey-esque range– on  “The Skeleton Collection”, he sings about “every chamber in his chest” like he doesn’t know what a heart is– the record has a lot of it. Drenched in late 80′s and early 90′s post-punk, Bouquet has a dreamy, nostalgic quality to it, like looking back at memories of life from the grave. Production is fantastic in the true sense of the word– you’ll wanna bust out the headphones for this one– with shoegazey touches like the unworldly screeching noise on “Show Me Evil” and sweeping synths throughout. Sure, there may be a lot of the same trick here, but Lynch does it well; Bouquet is a stellar debut album.

Featured Track: 
“Show Me Evil”